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Marnus methodically applies butter on the top and bottom of a slice of white bread. “That’s essential,” he explains as he closes the lid of his toastie maker. “Boom. Then you get it crisp on the outside.” He checks inside to reveal a toasted delight of pure toasted goodness, the gooey cheese happily sizzling within. “And that’s the key technique,” he explains. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

By now, I sense a layer of boredom is beginning to appear in your eyes. The red lights of sportswriting pretension are flashing wildly. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne hit 160 for his state team this week and is being eagerly promoted for an national team comeback before the England-Australia contest.

You probably want to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to get through a section of playful digression about toasties, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the second person. You sigh again.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a plate and walks across the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he states, “but I personally prefer the toastie cold. Boom, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, head to practice, come back. Perfect. Sandwich is perfect.”

Back to Cricket

Okay, to cut to the chase. Let’s address the match details out of the way first? Quick update for your patience. And while there may be just six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s hundred against the Tigers – his third in recent months in various games – feels importantly timed.

We have an Australian top order seriously lacking performance and method, exposed by the South African team in the World Test Championship final, highlighted further in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was left out during that tour, but on one hand you sensed Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the first opportunity. Now he seems to have given them the perfect excuse.

And this is a approach the team should follow. The opener has just one 100 in his last 44 knocks. Konstas looks not quite a Test match opener and closer to the handsome actor who might play a Test opener in a Indian film. Other candidates has shown convincing form. One contender looks cooked. Marcus Harris is still inexplicably hanging around, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their captain, Pat Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this appears as a surprisingly weak team, missing command or stability, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a game starts.

The Batsman’s Revival

Enter Marnus: a leading Test player as just two years ago, freshly dropped from the one-day team, the perfect character to bring stability to a fragile lineup. And we are advised this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne currently: a streamlined, no-frills Labuschagne, not as intensely fixated with small details. “I feel like I’ve really cut out extras,” he said after his century. “Not really too technical, just what I need to score runs.”

Of course, this is doubted. Probably this is a rebrand that exists only in Labuschagne’s mind: still furiously stripping down that technique from all day, going deeper into fundamentals than any player has attempted. Like basic approach? Marnus will spend months in the nets with advisors and replays, thoroughly reshaping his game into the least technical batter that has ever been seen. This is simply the trait of the obsessed, and the trait that has always made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating sportsmen in the game.

Wider Context

It could be before this very open historic rivalry, there is even a sort of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. In England we have a side for whom any kind of analysis, let alone self-analysis, is a forbidden topic. Go with instinct. Focus on the present. Live in the instant.

For Australia you have a player such as Labuschagne, a man completely dedicated with cricket and totally indifferent by public perception, who observes cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who approaches this quirky game with just the right measure of absurd reverence it demands.

This approach succeeded. During his focused era – from the time he walked out to come in for a hurt Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game with greater insight. To reach it – through pure determination – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his stint in English county cricket, fellow players saw him on the game day sitting on a park bench in a trance-like state, literally visualising every single ball of his batting stint. Per the analytics firm, during the initial period of his career a unusually large catches were dropped off his bat. Somehow Labuschagne had predicted events before anyone had a chance to affect it.

Current Struggles

It’s possible this was why his form started to decline the moment he reached the summit. There were no further goals to picture, just a empty space before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he lost faith in his favorite stroke, got trapped on the crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his trainer, Neil D’Costa, reckons a attention to shorter formats started to undermine belief in his positioning. Encouragingly: he’s now excluded from the one-day team.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an committed Christian who believes that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his job as one of achieving this peak performance, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may appear to the ordinary people.

This approach, to my mind, has always been the key distinction between him and the other batsman, a instinctive player